The Shops at La Cantera

The Shops at La Cantera blends the visual heritage of the Texas Hill Country with the stylishness appropriate to a luxury retail and upscale shopping setting.  Anchored by Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Dillard’s and Macy’s, this open-air marketplace blends the shopping efficiency of a regional mall with the ease of use of a lifestyle center in a distinctive, landscape-focused environment.

Created as a prototype for future development of regional scale outdoor centers, the design addresses both environmental concerns about land use and nature conservancy, and evolving shopping patterns. Overall planning for the center was developed with the goal of preserving as much natural landscape as practical. Site edges were preserved largely as found in the wild, an approach that provides a greenbelt buffer to the adjacent freeway and creates a sense of transition into the site from the feeder roads.

The property was oriented to step down the grade naturally in a series of buildings clustered around an ever-changing linear series of courtyards, paseos and gardens.  Shaded seating areas and a year-round blooming landscape provide places to rest, relax and refuel for more shopping or dining.  Leading the way as an example of large-scale retail development that works with the natural landscape, the overall design expands its environmental responses to include saving and relocating existing major trees and an emphasis on xeriscaping and selection of hardy, low-water foundation plantings throughout the project, which naturally focuses on native plants found in the region.